One of the most exhilarating and pulse-pounding plays in baseball is stealing home. It does not happen much, but when it does, and it works, it is like nothing you have ever felt or done before. Being able to combine one of your favorite games with work, will give you that same, stealing home sensation.
Of course, I’m referring to Pokemon GO. Yes, I play it. In fact, I love it, but my love affair with Pokemon started a long time ago. There has already been a lot of blogging about this how to use this augmented reality game for recruiting. Well, I have a story for you that happened recently and how it gave me an idea about how I can combine one of my favorites games with my job.
A few weeks ago I was at lunch walking around Seattle, Wa. I was playing Pokemon GO and had found a few Pokemon near this construction site for a new building. I ran into another person who was also playing. We struck up a conversation and I learned he was the architect for the newly constructed building. Small world huh? Well eventually he asked me what I did and I told him I am a sourcer for an architecture firm. He asked me which one, and I told him, and we talked for another 15 minutes when he asked for my email and said he would send me his resume as he looking for something new.
True to his word he sent it to me, and I looked him up and he was not in our system. I gave it to my recruiter who contacted him, vetted him and then submitted him to a role that he and my recruiter agreed was a great fit. He is now interviewing and it looks great. He has even sent a few of his architect friends my way!
This got me thinking, so I decided to try an experiment. I took an extra long lunch break and decided to visit a large architecture firm in the area and play Pokemon Go around the building. I ran into at least ten people all playing Pokemon GO and eight worked for the local architect firm. Five architects took my email and sent me resumes, and connected with me on LinkedIn and other social sites opening up their network to me.
At this point, I am in heaven. I am combining my love of Pokemon with my love of sourcing and kicking butt. Of course, my boss did ask why I took such a long lunch break, and when I explained it to him he did not believe me until I showed him the emails with the resumes. He wanted to see how I did it, so I took him out the next day, this time to a different architecture firm building and I looked for Pokemon.
We met several people, talked to them at length and about an hour later we returned and in my email were three more resumes from people I spoke to who worked at that firm. Not only that, there were five LinkedIn connection requests from others who worked at that firm. My boss was stunned at first and then laughed and all he said: “leave it to Jeremy to find a way to turn a game into a sourcing strategy.”
Now please do not get me wrong, the game was only a means to an end. I still had to do the talking and still had to get their interest and their resume or social connection. However, the game was the catalyst. It made it easier to find them and more importantly strike up a conversation with them. But more than that, it made it fun and exciting.